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Kids Pack Trip
Another annual trip is an early summer warm-up trip dubbed "Kids Pack Trip". This one started when our kids were mere tykes. The 3.5 mile hike was about all they could handle at that age. Yet, the final destination holds all kinds of things to interest kids: a stream to fish in, huge boulders to climb on, and caves to explore. It's also in the front range, near Colorado Springs, so the snow melts out pretty early. On this trip, we have three adults, five llamas, five kids, and one dog. Quite a crew! |
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Here we have Uncle Buck lounging in camp. Work's done for a couple of days anyhow. |
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Ron and I lounge while the llamas work on mowing the place down a bit. |
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Tyler (my son) makes sure the hammock is working ok. |
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Another view of camp. There's worse places to wake up in the morning. |
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Yeah, right, you just push that over, Mark. |
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Some places it's just hard to take a bad picture. |
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Hot dog no more. Delany the lab cools off in a natural wading pool. |
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Ron, Mark, Elyse, Brooke, Tyler, and Sam relax around the fire. |
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Reverse of the previous picture. After a dinner of spuds, brats, bean, and beer (courtesy of the llamas hauling capabilities), things are definitely winding down. |
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A *really* tough place to make a living, if you're a tree. |
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A few scenery pics. |
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Tyler and Sam with their llama loaded and ready to go. |
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Frosty and Elyse (plus Mahongany) ready to hit the trail on out. |
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Sam, Buck, Mahogany, yours truly, also ready to hit it. |
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Unless you're the lead llama, the view never really changes much....! |
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Time for a drink. |
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Another rest stop. Seems the ones carrying the least (people) need to stop the most! |
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Mahogany catching a snack from Elyse. Guess it pays to be beautiful... |
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For those familiar to Colorado, it may be surprising to know that this shot was taken in the area of the Hayman fire, two years later. The Hayman fire was the biggest forest fire in Colorado History, burning over 100,000 acres, and going on for months. In fact, we were camping in this area the weekend of the fire on another kids camp trip, and barely made it out before the place burned. But that's another story entirely. |
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Bridge crossing in the same burn area. |
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